Acoustic sensors enable efficient and non-invasive monitoring of a wide range of species, including many that are difficult to monitor in other ways. Although they were initially limited in application scope largely due to cost and hardware constraints, the development of low-cost, open-source models like the Audiomoth in recent years has increased access immensely and opened up new avenues of research. For example, some teams are using them to identify illicit human activities through the detection of associated sounds, like gunshots, vehicles, or chainsaws (e.g. OpenEars).
With this relatively novel dimension of wildlife monitoring rapidly advancing in both marine and terrestrial systems, it is crucial that we identify and share information about the utility and constraints of these sensors to inform efforts. A recent study identified advancements in hardware and machine learning applications, as well as early development of acoustic biodiversity indicators, as factors facilitating progress in the field. In terms of limitations, the authors highlight insufficient reference sound libraries, a lack of open-source audio processing tools, and a need for standardization of survey and analysis protocols. They also stress the importance of collaboration in moving forward, which is precisely what this group will aim to facilitate.
If you're new to acoustic monitoring and want to get up to speed on the basics, check out these beginner's resources and conversations from across the WILDLABS platform:
Three Resources for Beginners:
- Listening to Nature: The Emerging Field of Bioacoustics, Adam Welz
- Ecoacoustics and Biodiversity Monitoring, RSEC Journal
- Monitoring Ecosystems through Sound: The Present and Future of Passive Acoustics, Ella Browning and Rory Gibb
Three Forum Threads for Beginners:
- AudioMoth user guide | Tessa Rhinehart
- Audiomoth and Natterjack Monitoring (UK) | Stuart Newson
- Help with analysing bat recordings from Audiomoth | Carlos Abrahams
Three Tutorials for Beginners:
- "How do I perform automated recordings of bird assemblages?" | Carlos Abrahams, Tech Tutors
- "How do I scale up acoustic surveys with Audiomoths and automated processing?" | Tessa Rhinehart, Tech Tutors
- Acoustic Monitoring | David Watson, Ruby Lee, Andy Hill, and Dimitri Ponirakis, Virtual Meetups
Want to know more about acoustic monitoring and learn from experts in the WILDLABS community? Jump into the discussion in our Acoustic Monitoring group!
Header image: Carly Batist
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PhD in Ecology, Nature's sound lover.
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Savanna Ecologist, Field Station Director and Head of Conservation Tech Projects for Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS).
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Ecologist & Conservationist. Women for the Environment, Africa Fellow. National Geographic Explorer.
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PhD student at UC Davis studying gorilla communication & movement
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Avian Science Tech at Ecostudies Institute; AudioMoths and military lands
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Adventure Scientists is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, MT that equips scientists and researchers with high-quality data collected from the outdoors that are crucial to addressing environmental challenges around the world.
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Funding
Product Grant Program
Wildlife Acoustics
Wildlife Acoustics' grant program to receive bioacoustic tools and software is now accepting applications. Apply for up to $4,000 worth of products and software licenses.
9 August 2022
Careers
Opportunity: Postdoctoral Researcher
Ellie Warren
Gavin Jones is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join his movemebt ecology and bioacoustics work focusing on spotted owls.
4 August 2022
Careers
Earth Species Project - Senior AI Research Scientist
Andrea Austin
The Earth Species Project (ESP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to decoding animal communication and translating non-human language.
15 July 2022
Article
New papers on passive acoustic monitoring
Carly Batist
PAM & transfer learning, defining occupancy in surveys, effects of anthropogenic noise on fish, soundscapes to track ecosystem recovery, detecting sharks with echosounders, using PAMGuard to detect marine mammals
21 June 2022
Careers
Hiring Acoustic Ecology Postdoctoral Fellow
Sara Petrita Bombaci
The Sound and Light Ecology Team, a collaboration between Colorado State University and National Park Service scientists, is hiring an acoustic ecology postdoctoral fellow in Fort Collins, CO.
16 June 2022
Careers
Multiple Roles with Rainforest Connection
Rainforest Connection
Rainforest Connection has multiple engineering positions that will suppor their work developing acoustic monitoring devices.
16 June 2022
Article
Passive acoustic training workshop video/materials
Carly Batist
Video recording of workshop held in Madagascar + PDFs of slide, links to other resources & terrestrial PAM bibliography
13 June 2022
Article
New papers on marine acoustic monitoring
Carly Batist
Acoustic pingers to reduce net entanglement of river dolphins, acoustic observatories for sperm whales, detectability of dolphin whistles, monitoring sperm whales through echolocation rates
11 June 2022
Article
Julia Martínez Pardo et al., Published in Biological Conservation
4 June 2022
Article
Microchip has just announced the 1 GHz SAMA7G54 single-core Arm Cortex-A7 microprocessor (MPU) with MIPI CSI-2 and parallel camera interfaces, as well as up to four I2S, one SPDIF transmitter and receiver, and a 4-...
3 June 2022
Article
"A drone emitting orca sounds will be used in attempt to guide the animal, whose health is fast deteriorating"
1 June 2022
Article
New papers on passive acoustic monitoring
Carly Batist
Couple of hot-off-the-press papers on different passive acoustic monitoring studies, including ones on manatees, coral reef fishes, woodpeckers, insects, and using ecoacoustic indices in marine soundscapes
29 May 2022
June 2025
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Julia Wiel
July 2025
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Vanesa Reyes
November 2025
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Stephanie O'Donnell
September 2022
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Stephanie O'Donnell
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61 Products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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| Okay, super! Really nice thread you started. It’s great to get these insights.With my own experiments, as you mentioned, accuracy is very good within the polygons. But in addition... |
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Acoustics | 6 months 1 week ago | |
| The PCB mount terminals are actually quite robust and paired with a lock washer and something that would better secure the nylon (e.g., a piece of flat grooved plastic to add... |
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Acoustics, Conservation Dogs, Sensors | 6 months 1 week ago | |
| I guess, you know USB digital audio | Android Open Source Project. from which I conclude it should be possible, however, my Android experience is also zero. |
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Acoustics | 6 months 1 week ago | |
| PCBs back, working great but right now a custom firmware build ("force_27"), need to make sure all is well with the standard build. This of course a non-switch version. |
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Acoustics | 6 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hi Brett, I am interested in developing really low cost multi channel underwater acoustic recorders. Can you tell me a bit more about the board and stuff you were using... |
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Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Acoustics, Camera Traps, Climate Change, East Africa Community, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions, Protected Area Management Tools | 7 months ago | |
| These would be infrasound, so no the sealed volume doesn't need to be buried. It only needs to be a few cc total volume for a single element. I found an old poster... |
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Acoustics | 7 months ago | |
| Thanks, we know they are breeding these animals here, I asked, since it's seems to be an expensive hobby, we need to allocate more funding for rural women in entrepreneurship and... |
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Acoustics, Animal Movement, Citizen Science, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Protected Area Management Tools, Wildlife Crime | 7 months 1 week ago | |
| Here is the final, dramatic word. I built a pipistrelle (noisier than a pippyg so a good test) and used non-ceramic capacitors and played with ferrites and 1R resistors. ... |
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Acoustics | 7 months 1 week ago | |
| WildMon, Terra Genesis, The VF Foundation, Thaksin University, and the Wanakaset Symbiosis Network have teamed up on a new project in... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Community Base | 7 months 1 week ago | |
| This looks awesome! |
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Acoustics | 7 months 2 weeks ago | |
| I would love to see my bat detector designs in use in Africa - drop me a line, let's see if we can get something to happen - I'm pipistrelledetector at gmail dot comhttp://www.... |
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Citizen Science, Acoustics, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 7 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hi Phil, Thanks for sharing - this is really interesting work! Seems like a cool integration of ground-based (or ocean-based) data and satellite data, with a community... |
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Geospatial, Acoustics, Camera Traps, eDNA & Genomics | 7 months 4 weeks ago |
